"The man who has no imagination has no wings" Muhammad Ali

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Humans don't get ideas, they make ideas

In a conversation with my mother the other day it was brought to attention that I have worn several different professional hats in my young life, and she would be right. Since graduating with my B.A. in Theatre in 2002, I have worked as a costume designer, custom dressmaker, retail shop owner, professional artist, veterinary technician, and therapy dog trainer. 

I like to think of my prior job experiences as life training, all of which have influenced my personal world and understanding of that around me. In each carnation of my work experience I have demonstrated creativity, innovation, the ability to research, gather, and disseminate information. I have managed, organized, paid attention to detail, mastered technical procedures, exhibited patience, compassion, and shared my knowledge with others. With all of this in mind I suppose I could say that the path I have been on has been leading me all along towards my greatest challenge and most rewarding career, teaching.

The decision to create a blog to document my journey as a pre-service teacher and graduate student along with my eventual foray into a classroom of my own, is based on a question my classroom management professor had posed last semester after discussing 21st century learning skills. Basically she asked us to reflect upon the idea of learning as an interdependent process as opposed to a strictly personal or independent one. I will share my thoughts on the subject below;

Knowledge is a constructive process. To really understand something, learners must first create something from their personal world. As Costa* said, "Humans don't get ideas, they make ideas." Yet learning is also a reciprocal process, where the individual influences the group and the group influences the individual. Therefore the creative process executed by the individual to drive understanding is is constructed through both their own and shared knowledge, thus making their personal world an interdependent one.

In the spirit of collaborative learning and interdependence, I ask you to join me on my journey. Let us walk awhile together on the path of discovery and innovation in education. Our worlds are not so far apart as they may have seemed.


 * The Thought Filled Curriculum
    Arthur L. Costa
    ASCD Educational Leadership
    February 2008, Volume 65, Number 5
    Teaching Students to Think pages 20 - 24


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